Chile Diary - Day 6

This will be my final entry from Chile (and I also note it's my 500th blog post).

Today we started early and visited the extraordinary ALMA Observatory.

A vicuna (?) on the road to ALMA

 

A massive cactus - but there were none at 5000m!

At an elevation of 5000m, its antenna are high on the Chajnator Plateau.

We even took oxygen as a precaution, but thankfully did not need it.

However the altitude was evident - thinking became muddled and physical exertion more difficult.

The array of antenna were an amazing sight, set in a natural amphitheatre of Andes mountains.

But perhaps the highlight of the day was meeting Denis Barkats.

Denis is a Sixty Symbols viewer who contacted me after hearing we were in Chile.

Not only is he a man with great taste in videos (!) he's also a commissioning scientist at ALMA, and knows the place back-to-front.

Denis and me

So Denis joined us for the trip to the plateau and became the star of the video.

He did a great job explaining the facility.

Stay tuned for a slew of great films from this trip, on both Sixty Symbols and Deep Sky Videos.

I'm now back in Santiago and looking forward to getting home (without looking forward to the long flight!)

A special thanks to Laura Ventura from the European Southern Observatory for being a great guide and host.

Chile Diary - Day One

Chile Diary - Day Two

Chile Diary - Day Three

Chile Diary - Day Four
Chile Diary - Day Five
Chile Diary - Day Six

Chile Diary - Day 5

Woke at around 3am this morning for a final dose of astrophotography at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

I joined Pete Lawrence - he's the real pro and his images will come later.

Here are some of my efforts, shot on a Canon 650D.

Note the satellite - no doubt breaching the 40km/h limit

The VLT fires its laser into my star trails

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

The future E-ELT site - the peak at the centre

Went back to bed around 6am for some rest, then we embarked on a long drive through the Atacama Desert.

(I say "we" - the driving was done by our ESO host, Laura)

Some bleak landscape as we passed some of the world's biggest copper mines.



We also had a quick look at villages that were hastily abandoned as industrial forces pushed and pulled at livelihoods. The village cemeteries seemed particularly poingnant.



But as we approached the Andes, the landscape became increasingly spectacular.



We now find ourselves at San Pedro de Atacama, a charming village at the base of the Chajnantor plateau.

Tomorrow we climb beyond 5000m - so high we take oxygen with us.



There, if all goes to plan, we'll come face-to-face with ALMA, one of the grandest astronomical projects on Earth.

The videos from the trip will eventually appear at Deep Sky Videos and Sixty Symbols.

PS: Although I am away, a few videos were pre-planned and have gone live on Numberphile and Computerphile.

Chile Diary - Day One

Chile Diary - Day Two

Chile Diary - Day Three

Chile Diary - Day Four
Chile Diary - Day Five
Chile Diary - Day Six